– The NFL Network would like to cordially invite you to watch your 2017 NFL Draft on its network, so you don’t have to endure whatever uncomfortable funereal thing ESPN is about to crank up.

– Or you can pay attention on your computer or device, and watch with the knowledge that you and you alone are responsible for the firing of dozens of ESPN employees, you heartless, cord-cutting meanie, you.

Okay, okay, to get this out of the way, and yes, it ties into the draft …

– As someone who just got the call from The Turk on the whole Campus Insiders gig, yeah, it really, really, REALLY sucks for those at ESPN who just got let go.

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There are some very good people and lots of friends in the business who now have to go through the humiliation – through no fault of their own – of dealing with one of the worst moments of their lives on a way-too public stage. It’s just not fair.

But if you’re good enough at what you do, and you do something that people need and/or want, it’ll all work out. However – and here’s the ESPN wake-up call – maybe what you’re good at doesn’t translate to what’s coming next.

And that’s all the NFL Draft really is. Are these guys good enough at what they do, and are they able to do something that teams need and/or want? Maybe, what some of these guys are good at doesn’t translate to what’s coming next.

– Considering how the Rams and Eagles moved heaven and earth last year to get okay-not-special prospects Jared Goff and Carson Wentz, respectively, there’s a large part of me that thinks teams like the 49ers, Bears, Browns and Jets are totally sandbagging, and there’s going to be a massive run on quarterbacks early.

– Stupid thought from a stupid guy. There’s something about Cleveland moving around to take Mitchell Trubisky that just seems so … so … Cleveland.

This franchise deserves to finally nail one of these first round quarterback picks, but Trubisky seems like a name – especially after changing it to Mitchell – that belongs on a list with Couch, Quinn, Weeden and Manziel.

– Darnold, however, does not.

– If the world was really, really super-awesome, Cleveland would take this draft’s version of Vontae Mack – Reuben Foster – with the No. 1 overall pick, “no matter what,” and with the 12 take the Draft Day version of Ray Jennings, Dalvin Cook.

– However – to dog my own bit – I do sort of get it, but from a different angle. Watson is built like I am – if I had a muscle. Body types are different even at the same weight, obviously.

– Go ahead. Take Solomon Thomas. Then, besides Andrew Luck and David DeCastro, name any recently-taken Stanford picks who’ve been close to being worth their early draft slots.

– Richard Sherman went in the fifth round, by the way.

– Fun Fact: John Elway was never named a First Team All-Pro.

– Dumbest scouting concept I’ve heard this week from an NFL guy: It would be nice if Washington’s Budda Baker was 5-11, because you want your safeties to be at least that tall. Baker is 5-10. If you really think that one inch matters, I can’t help you.

– Dumbest paraphrased scouting concept I’ve heard over the last few weeks from several big-name guys: You don’t take safeties early. However, every team is looking for a top safety like an Earl Thomas or Landon Collins, because difference-makers at the position are hard to find. Oh yeah, and Jamal Adams and Malik Hooker are two of the five best players in this draft. But still, you don’t take safeties early.

– Sometimes the answer to your quarterback question is no. Better to suck and get into the Sam Darnold sweepstakes than to be saddled with a stiff under center for the next few years.

– I love Leonard Fournette. He’s going to be a superstar, but don’t let the Ezekiel Elliott effect make everyone crazy. Remember, Zeke might be fantastic, but he also landed in the perfect situation in Dallas. Nothing changes. You’re still better off taking running backs later.

– You want to fight this? Out of the top ten rushers last year …

Jordan Howard was No. 2 – fifth round
DeMarco Murray was No. 3 – third round
No. 4 Jay Ajayi went in the fifth
No. 5 Le’Veon Bell went in the second
No. 6 LeSean McCoy went in the second
No. 7 David Johnson went in the third
No. 8 LeGarrette Blount was undrafted, and on and on and on.

Zeke was the only top ten rusher from last year who went in the first round.

– I don’t want to hear it about Joe Mixon from a league that spent last year celebrating Tyreek Hill and can’t wait to put Adrian Peterson and Ben Roethlisberger into the Hall of Fame.

What Mixon did was obviously horrific and wrong on every level with no excuse possible. But he’s going to play in the NFL, so it doesn’t make a lick of difference whether he goes in the first round or the seventh.

If you’re going to set the bar at taking him in a middle round, but you have a first round grade on him, then make the pick early. Your moral high ground goes bye-bye if you plan on taking him at all, so you might as well get your guy.

– In 1992, the New York Jets took a can’t-miss, prototype tight end in Nebraska’s Johnny Mitchell with the 15th pick, one selection after the New York Jets took Notre Dame tight end Derek Brown with the 14th selection.

Mitchell caught 158 passes for 2,086 yards and 16 touchdowns in four years with the Jets, and was out of the league a season later. Brown caught 11 passes for the Giants for 87 yards.

– Just about every NFL type I know, love and trust insists the Jets are taking Alabama TE O.J. Howard at the six, and many of them have the Giants taking Miami TE David Njoku at the 23.

– The Jabrill Peppers situation is fascinating. I’ve yet to find anyone who doesn’t think he’s a special brand of top ten overall talent, and yet I’ve yet to find anyone who guarantees that he’ll go in the first round. I’ve also yet to find anyone who has a real clue what he’s going to be as a safety.

– Every year I’m a part of the NFL Draft world is another year I realize just how completely and utterly ridiculous so much of this is. GMs and NFL scouts are guessing, and for any of them who don’t get that and are self-important enough to tell you otherwise are full of big bags of bull(bleep).

All you can reasonably ask for is to find a quality starter in the first round, a good starter in the second round, and dumb fricking luck after that.

– Three parts of all this that NFL team scouting types don’t want you to know.

1) You can know every aspect of a prospect. You can have a guy down cold in terms of strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, medical evaluations and favorite colors. You can be dead-on right, and one wrong shot to the head changes everything. No one can really know exactly how messed up the brains are on these guys.

2) You can know every aspect of a prospect … and sometimes, the guy gets lit up with one big pop in an NFL practice, and that’s it. And then he realizes that this just isn’t for him.

3) Everything after the the second round is a total guess. “This is where the GMs and scouts earn their money.” Again, bull(bleep).

Do a deep dive into the past NFL drafts and you’ll notice how random the hits are after around the first 50 picks. There’s no magic formula other than having lots of picks and hoping a few can play.

If you stumble upon a Pro Bowl talent – even in the first 50 picks – again, you’ve lucked out. History proves that.

Everyone knows everything and everyone has the same information. If anyone thought Dak Prescott, or Tom Brady, or Richard Sherman, or any of the other late picks you want to name would turn into stars, they’d have been selected earlier.

– The world sucks right now. It’s an awful place to be in, with everyone getting fired, yelled at, hacked, bullied, mocked, marginalized, passed over, and ignored.

It’s the NFL Draft. It’s why you’re here. It’s your escape from reality for a weekend. You’ve earned this, so enjoy – even if you don’t have some of your favorite ESPN personalities sharing in your fun.